To donate: Call 624-6464 during the radiothon, or 624-5600 to make an advance donation.

Details: Proceeds support women’s and children’s services at Faxton St. Luke’s, including equipment, health education and specialist services. Donors can become a “Miracle Maker” by pledging $10 per month for 12 months. Last year, the event raised more than $25,000.

Isaac, who lives in Sherrill, is one of the network’s “miracle children.” The network has paid for his occupational therapy ever since his parents’ health plan cut off coverage.

There was a time when Isaac couldn’t have handled all those motorcycles. As a toddler and preschooler, he had trouble coping with everyday situations that other kids breezed through, particularly when they overloaded his senses, said his mother, Dawn.

When Dawn and husband Steve took Isaac to a playground, they were lucky if they could get him near the equipment, she said. Isaac worried that he might fall off a swing or collide with another child. He panicked going through automatic doors because he didn’t understand why the door was opening.

The feel of grass on bare feet, clapping at birthday parties and the sound of the toy Thomas the Tank Engine that his grandparents gave him triggered Isaac’s anxieties. During a screening for therapy, Isaac was too nervous to jump off the bottom step of a small staircase, Dawn said.

But during the motorcycle fundraiser, Isaac walked by himself to the front of the crowd to draw the winning raffle tickets. He even sat on a motorcycle while its rider revved the engine.

His parents, both teachers, attribute this progress to the close relationship he has with Cicily Talerico-Hickel, a childhood-based occupational therapist at Faxton, and the Children’s Miracle Network, which pays for Isaac’s therapy.

“This (the fundraiser) was one of the most visible payoffs,” said his father.

Local funds

Helping parents get needed care for their kids is just one of the many ways the Miracle Network helps local kids, said Michele Adams, Faxton’s Children’s Miracle Network coordinator. The network has supported the hospital’s services for mothers and children in many ways over the years, she said.

Miracle Network support has made the hospital’s special care nursery possible, Adams said. And Miracle Network funds have also paid for equipment and services, such as an infant CPR education program for expectant parents; a female mannequin that simulates childbirth to train doctors, hospital workers and EMTs; rocking chairs for the special nursery; newborn ventilators; and obstetric care for women with little or no insurance.

Last year, the radiothon raised more than $25,000. And all proceeds stay in the community, Adams said.

Isaac’s therapy

Isaac started coming to Faxton for therapy when he was 2½. At first, he came for speech therapy and occupational therapy for fine motor skill delays. But Talerico-Hickel discovered that he also had sensory processing issues and began working on those as well.

The two developed a good rapport and Isaac started making progress, so much, in fact, that when he started school, his parents’ insurer refused to continue covering Isaac’s therapy, arguing that he could receive all the therapy he needed at school.

His parents worried that Isaac would regress without consistent, quality therapy. They also thought he should spend school time in the classroom, Steve Paz said.

That’s when the Miracle Network stepped in, letting Isaac continue the therapy that had already done him so much good.

“Now that he is older and has more experience, he has been more apt to try new things,” Talerico-Hickel said. “When I first started working with him, he was afraid of his own environment, toys, to talk – just anything that would come around the corner. That has all changed.

“Today he is willing to try any new experience. Just last year he even went to Enchanted Forest and went down the water slide. For him, that was such a big deal.”

Today, Isaac, a rising second-grader, has learned to work through his anxieties, his parents said. He’s doing well in school and loves to read, play outdoors, ride his bike, go to the speedway with his grandfather, play with an entire village of toy trains and teach stuff to little brother Owen, 4.

“His relationship with Cicily is probably the crux of the whole thing, her knowledge and how she’s able to work with Isaac is really important,” Dawn said.

“She can get him to do things that he might not want to do at first or be willing to do,” she added.

That’s not to say things are always easy for Isaac. He’s still afraid, for example, of thunderstorms. But he’s become a weather watcher, making sure he knows when a storm is coming, his mother said. And as it approaches, he pulls out books on thunderstorms and reads them, countering his fear with knowledge.

A lot of people are surprised to hear that Isaac is a miracle child; they don’t see what the problem is, Dawn said. “We attribute a lot of that to the success that we’ve had (through therapy),” she said.

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